St. Matthew Lutheran School is proud to be able to offer to its students such a diverse number of fine arts offerings.  We have been blessed with a number of talented individuals who have been willing to share their gifts with our students and allow us to be able to offer programs that are unmatched in the area.

 

Choir is a required part of the curriculum for all K-8 students.  We have three choirs that sing offer their praise to the Lord in song.  The Little Angels choir, comprised of Kindergarteners through second graders, the Cherub Choir, comprised of third, fourth and fifth graders, and the Jubilee Choir, comprised of sixth, seventh and eighth graders not only participate regularly in worship, but they also travel beyond our walls to offer a tremendous witness to the community.

 

Band is an elective subject offered to students in grades 5-8.  St. Matthew has two bands, a beginners band for the fifth and sixth grades and the concert band made up of seventh and eighth graders.  Wach band performs several times during the course of the year at both school events and in church worship services.  Students who choose not to participate in band take a humanities class.  Currently, the fifth and sixth graders are learning study skills while the seventh and eighth graders are studying theater arts.

 

Art classes are taught weekly to our students through the Wayne Westland Community School District's Shared Time Program.  What this means for our students is that the public school district provides for us an instructor who is certified in art instruction who teaches all of our art classes.  This teacher teaches all of her classes in our building, utilizing our system of education and classroom management.  We have utilized this offer from the school district for the last several years and have benefited greatly from it.

 

St. Matthew is also pleased to be able to provide opportunities for its students to participate in drama as an extra curricular activity.  In addition to the traditional Christmas service, St. Matthew has also been able to offer it students the chance to participate in larger scale dramas.  We alternate our program from year to year.  One year, we will present a Fine Arts Festival, featuring a musical extravaganza that highlights the choirs and bands, shows the artwork produced throughout the school year, and presents a short musical perfromed by our elementary grade students.  The following year, we will stage a Broadway musical to be performed by our middle school students.  Our recent productions have included titles such as The Music Man, South Pacific, The Wizard of Oz, and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

 

---

 

 

A two-year study done for the Imagination Project at UCLA in 1999 found the following information in regard to students who are actively involved in a fine arts program.

 

1.  Positive developments for children engaged in the arts are seen at each step in the research -- between 8th and 10th grade as well as between 10th and 12th grade.  The comparative gains for srts-involved youngsters generally become more pronounced over time.  And more important, this pattern also holds for children from low-income and low parent-education level homes.

 

2.  Students who report consistent high levels of involvement in instrumental music over the middle and high school years show significantly higher levels of mathematics proficiency by grade 12.  This observation holds both generally and also for low socioeconomic status students as a subgroup.

 

3.  Sustained student involvement in theatre arts (acting in plays and musicals, participating in drama clubs, and taking acting lessons) associated with a variety of developments for youth:  gains in reading proficiency, gains in self concept and motivation, and higher levels of empathy and tolerance for others. 

 

To read more of the findings of this study, please visit:

http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/publications/100535351554386100.pdf